Dayton (19-4, 10-1) will now prepare for a showdown against Rhode Island at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I. The teams will meet again in the regular-season finale at 2 p.m. Feb. 26, at UD Arena.
The Flyers started the game against VCU with 17-4 run, and they led 27-19 at halftime and 34-24 midway through the third quarter. VCU ended the third quarter on a 16-5 run, however, and took a 40-39 lead into the fourth.
It was a back-and-forth game from that point. VCU took a 57-54 lead on a 3-pointer by Madison Hattix-Covington with 23 seconds to play. Dayton trailed 59-57 with five seconds to play when Erin Whalen was fouled. She made the first free throw but missed the second.
Tenin Magassa led Dayton with 14 points. Makira Cook had 13.
Dayton lost in part because of 17 turnovers. VCU had nine. VCU made 8 of 17 3-pointers, while Dayton made 4 of 9.
Dayton suffered its first loss since Dec. 8, when it fell 60-57 to Florida. The Flyers fell to 9-2 at UD Arena. Their only other loss came in the second game of the season, 70-56 to Duke.
Dayton was trying to win 14 games in a row for the eighth time in school history. It would have been Dayton’s longest winning streak since the 2019-20 season when it won 15 games in a row and started 13-0 in the A-10. It had a 16-game winning streak in 2017-18, Green’s second season. That tied the school record for the longest winning streak in one season.
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